The Hidden Door
by loupgarou666
Summary: There's a door that must be sought out and opened to vanquish the Dark Lord and to save a desperate, lonely man from selfdestruction, and a certain knowitall is caught in the middle of it. Takes place after 6th book, SSHG
1. Chapter 1

He was sitting on the high throne, his head held up arrogantly, his eyes cast over the bowing figure in front of him, a pleased look on his face.

"You have done well, the inconvenient old fool is finally done with."

A spattering of laughter rose from the Inner Circle, then died out as quickly as it came.

"However, I do remember telling young Malfoy to finish him."

"My Lord, time was running out, I had to kill him quickly, the order would not have believed me to have stayed up there longer, they would have begun to speculate."

"I see…you will be rewarded of course, but considering the good mood I'm in, I think some sort of entertainment should be arranged…and what better victim of it is there when one is lying so…shall we say close at hand?"

The crouched figure face contorted as he realized what the hissing figure meant."Who do you mean, my Lord?"

Leaning slightly forward, "Oh don't play dumb, after all, you are one of the greatest potion master the world has seen. But to humor you, who slightly disobey my orders? I rather think he would deserve the punishment I am about to give, besides, I haven't seen him in pain for the longest time." He said this last part as if he missed a long lost friend. "Crucio!"

A jet of light shot out of the wand and hit its mark, the figure no longer crouched, but writhed on the floor, inexpressible pain seized the convulsing body.

"Proceed Inner Circle." The hooded circle moved in, each individual reached into their own robes and in turn drew out their wands, and joined in the torture.

She was looking out the window, her eyes reflecting the beautiful scenery, and yet her eyes remained unseeing. She was in deep thought about the last days of sixth year. Harry had said that Snape killed Dumbledore, no _Professor_ Snape killed _Professor_ Dumbledore…what was wrong with her, thinking about respectability at a time like this? There was no way Snape killed Dumbledore on his own resolve. Dumbledore must have wanted it. But if Dumbledore wanted it… that would mean Snape isn't evil, which means that Snape is still on our side. She unconsciously nodded her head fervently. That must be why, she reasoned, Snape killed Dumbledore, but why would Dumbledore want to be killed? Wouldn't he have served the world better if he was alive? As her thirst for knowledge drove her to cross the expectations of her year, her curiosity, will, and hate of mystery drove her to a new resolve…all she had to do is hope her two best friends was to accept her decision.

The next morning dawned, and the bushy headed genius woke sleepily, her mind in a blur, then she suddenly remembered what she had to do. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair and put on some clothes and rushed down the stairs.

She reached the kitchen in one piece and greeted the table surrounded by redheads and Harry.

"Morning everyone!" Hermione said. They greeted her around the food in their mouths. She sat down between Ron and Ginny.

Tentatively, she brought up what was on her mind. "Hey guys?" Harry and Ron looked up.

"I…I was thinking last night and there's something I need to do…" Harry and Ron gave her a questioning look.

"It's got something to do with researching about the R.A.B. I was wondering if you guys go ahead and I research about Horcruxes and stuff, I'll meet up you guys later, if I go with you and we keep on moving, I'm not sure I can do as much research as I want to if I stayed put."

"We'll go with you," Ron said

"I'm not sure, there's a lot of research to be done and it might delay going to Godric's Hollow, and searching for the Horcruxes."

Harry looked deep in thought, "ummm…Harry?"

Harry said slowly, "I think that might work, and after you research about who R.A.B. was and about Voldemort, we can meet up and discuss things a bit."

"Hey!" Ginny said indignantly, "How come Hermione gets to go with you guys, and I have to stay home?"

"Because," said Harry anxiously, "Hermione…knows how to…she can take…she wants…I…its her own choice, Mrs. Weasly wouldn't want you to go. Besides, I told you before, Voldemort's gonna use you to get to me and I can't let that happen."

Ginny grumble indistinctly, she was fighting a losing battle and she knew it.

Hermione pushed her chair back and started to climb the long stairs back up again. "Well, if I want to get as much research done as possible, I'll have to go this afternoon,."

"Wait! Where are you going to stay, Hermione?"

Over her shoulder she shouted one word. "Hogwarts"

That afternoon, the Weaslys waved goodbye to the trio, Ginny gave Harry a last kiss, Mrs. Weasly gave Ron, Hermione and Harry a last squeeze and the parted. When the trio arrived at the street, they turned inward for a three-way hug. Harry and Ron then stepped back.

"Good luck Hermione." Ron said

"See you later 'mione." Harry said

"See you later guys. Be Careful," said Hermione.

Then Harry and Ron disapparated to Godric's Hollow with a loud crack. Hermione gave a last glance at the Burrow and disapparated to Hogsmeade.

When she arrived at Hogsmeade, Hermione went to the Three Broomsticks to check on Rosmerta and get a butterbeer. The bell tinkled as she pushed the door open and she saw Rosmerta bustling noisily with drinks for customers.

"Hello Rosmerta. How are you feeling?"

"Oh, hello, one moment please." She poured some drinks to some rowdy looking men and then returned to sit with Hermione.

"I'm all right, the ministry's keeping me under surveillance, y'know but sometimes I wonder if they're here to make sure I don't get tampered with or here to drain my supplt of firewhiskey." She sighed, "How 'bout you dear?"

"Oh, I'm all right."

"Where's Ron and Harry?"

"Dunno, I came here to buy a few things and I'm going on my way."

"To where may I ask?"

"Oi! Bartender! Can I get a firewhiskey here?"

"Oh! Just a moment m'dear I have to take his order."

"mhmmm" nodded Hermione. What if Rosmerta is still controlled by Voldemort? Her escorts aren't doing much of a job of making sure she doesn't get hurt, getting drunk and all on the job. It'd be best not to tell her too much.

"Busy day eh? Rosemerta."

"Yeah, I didn't expect so many to come now, what with recent events…so tell me dear, where do you plan to go?"

"Probably to…I dunno…I'll be applying to another wizarding school I guess."

"I see…"

Hermione checked her magicked watch…"Sorry Rosemerta I have to go. Bye."

"Bye. Hmmmm…" Rosemerta turned away and slammed into the same person who wanted firewhiskey.

"So…what did she want?"

"She came to chat." He raised and eyebrow.

"She said she might be applying to another wizarding school."

"Is that possible or even probable?"

"Well, you never know, I mean she was one of the smartest students Hogwarts has seen."

"Yes, but wouldn't she be going to where Potter and Weasly are?"

Rosemerta suddenly whispered harshly, "Don't you dare! No, I won't help you destroy her, I won't help you kill any of them. Get. Away. From. Me. Now."

"Rosemerta dear, I think your fighting the curse too much, it'll take your strength away. Come here, in the back, now I want you to listen carefully now, you are already helping me destroy them…you know them, and they trust you." Rosmerta's eyes widened.

"Imperio"

Hermione went to muggle London to shop for some new clothes and on the way she spotted an exotic necklace that seemed oddly slytherinish, though red and gold. She bought it. Later, she went to Diagon Alley to buy some potion ingredients, some books, a new robe, and exchanged some muggle money at Gringotts for wizard money. She then went back to her house and quickly packed some stuff into a suitcase, shrunk it so it fit in her pocket and quickly left the house, promising to never come back to it unless it was absolutely necessary.

She arrived at the front entrance of Hogwarts and pounded at the door, a very irritated and cautious Filch opened the door, poked her and her belongings with a scanner and pulled her inside.

"Go up to Professor McGonagall, she's waiting for you at her office."

"Do you mean the headmistress's office or her old one?"

"What!" snapped Filch, "Oh no, no, the one she had as a professor, she refuses to take the headmaster's quarters." Filch muttered a strangled cry and he half hopped and half ran away, Mrs. Norris at his heels.

Hermione slowly ascended the stairs and walked to Professor McGonagall's room,knocking on the door when she reached it.

"Come in." came a crisp voice.

"Good afternoon, Professor."

"Miss Granger! What are you doing here?"

"Didn't you receive my owl? I wrote to you to tell you I had a request to make. Filch certainly seemed to know I was coming."

"Did he now? I'll have to ask him about it later. Now, what is your request?"

"I would like to stay here at Hogwarts to research on some subjects."

"Of course dear, but what about Potter and Weasly?"

"They know where to find me."

McGonagall have her a weird look, "All right, but for meals, you'll be served in your room, and don't go wandering off on your own without telling any of the professors, now that you are at Hogwarts, you are under my care and I am responsible for you."

"Yes, ma'm…ummm, where will I be staying?"

"You can have your Head Girl room for now, if you want to change any of the rooms, you can tell me, after all, the school will be pretty empty now…oh the password is 'bauble head'."

"Thank you, good day."

Hermione arrived at her Head Girl room and mumbled the password and stepped inside. She unpacked her things and summoned a house elf to bring her something to eat, she was famished.

Afterwards, she went to the library where a book in the Restricted Section caught her eyes, it was about the Cruciatus Curse, its affects and other useful hexes. She took that book and plopped down to read.

A sallow gaunt man lay on the dungeon floor in chains. Once in a while a little moan of pain escaped his lips. Evidently the Dark Lord was having particular enjoyment in torturing him. A heavy set man came down the stairs, swinging the key.

"Hello Snape," he said cheerfully, "He's in a playful mood today."

"That's wonderful Amycus, just wonderful." The man half groaned, half muttered

Amycus unlocked the door, unchained the man and led him to where the Inner Circle was congregating.

"Don't worry Snape, your last moments of torment will be over soon, for a long time anyway, after today, of course,…I rather like it when they squeal." Amycus then pushed him into the middle of the circle, and the screaming began.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Hermione went down to the dungeons to see if there was a clue of Snape's whereabouts, or anything that proved he wasn't on Voldemort's side. The DADA office door creaked open slowly; she shuffled through some papers on his desk and saw a package that said Spinner's End on it as the return address, it seemed to be a book, she wrote down the address on a piece of paper and stowed it in her pocket. She then walked to a cabinet that seemed almost to beckon her. In it, she found valuable potions and antidotes. After searching for nearly two hours, Hermione proceeded to the dungeons. It was drafty and cold, it chilled her to the bones. Surprisingly, the door to the potion's office was easily opened by a simple _alohomora_ spell. She stepped inside and looked around, what she saw couldn't have possibly been to Snape's tastes, so she deduced that there was a secret passageway to his real chambers, after all, Snape has been living in the dungeons since he started teaching in Hogwarts. She found a tapestry of what you could call abstract art, try as she might, she couldn't lift it away from the wall. Frowning in frustration, she stared hard at the painting and thought about what sort of passwords Snape could have used. At the thought of 'Spinner's End' a picture began to take shape, it looked like a wolf with silver blood, but it's ears and limbs were too long, the nose seemed incredibly keen, as if it could smell Hermione, and the muscles underneath the sleek skin, too sinewy for an ordinary wolf...it was a werewolf.

"Werewolf" – nothing happened, she frowned.

"_Loup garou_" – the tapestry seemed to burn away and there was a passageway that led to nowhere. She stepped inside.

"Lumos" light shone from the tip of her wand, and she started up the stairs.

When she came to another door, she whispered the password again and the door opened on its own accord. When she walked in, the fire blazed to life and the whole room lit to show a magnificent room, furnished and pretty luxurious. She explored the whole wing. She came upon a closet and when she opened it, there were another set of stairs, this time when she came to the end of it, it opened to the school grounds.

"Merlin" she whispered in awe. Right then, she saw a staggering figure emerge from the shadows, immediately, she put a disillusionment charm over her and followed the moaning shadow back to where she came from. When they both entered the room, she heard the guy curse and he fell to a heap on the floor. She rushed over to him and turned him over. What she looked at was the contorted face of Hogwart's Potions Master, incredibly gaunt, sallow and bloody.

"Professor!" She gasped.

"Wha-?" Snape answered, and then he passed out. Hermione quickly muttered the countercurse for the disillusionment charm.

"Mobilicorpus" she whispered and carried him to the bed.

Snape suddenly snapped his eyes open and whispered hoarsely "Cruciatus antidote, purple."

Hermione somehow knew what her meant and rushed back to the DADA office and practically emptied the cabinet and carried magicked them to where Snape's hidden chambers were. On the way she called her house elf and told her that she wanted to read, inform anyone who asks for her and she does not want to be disturbed

"I will skip dinner today Jimmy, I'll come out when I'm hungry." She then almost ran back to Snape's chambers. There, she picked out the dark purple potion that was labeled "Cruciatus antidote" For a second she admired Snape's neat cursive handwriting and then snapped out of it. But Snape's body was shuddering with spasms. Remembering what she read about Cruciatus curses she performed an unbreakable charm on herself, and held Snape's hand, he grasped it desperately, anything to stop the pain. The spasms soon subsided.

"Here, Professor, drink it. It'll help with the pain." She helped him into sitting position and help the flask to his lips. As if by instinct, his senses sharpened and he sniffed the bottle, and then obediently drank it. At once, his features became relaxed and he stopped shaking. Sighing, Hermione looked at his face and saw that even in sleep, he was anxious, his brow was still furrowed and there were lines on his forehead. Muttering to herself she saw blood seeping onto the bed sheets. She then realized how hurt he was. Carefully, she stripped Snape until he was only in a pair of boxers and started to tend to his wounds. An hour later she was finished; she changed the sheets with a wave of her wand and went to take a shower. After what happened tonight, she needed a nice long bath. In the bathroom, she was almost surprised to find a luxurious tub, many different soaps and shampoos, she nearly ran to take a shower.

The next morning, Snape awoke on his bed, tucked in and comfortable. He had no memory of getting into bed and why did he feel so...clean? The last thing he remembered was being stuck together with blood. He threw off his covers and almost died at the sight of what he was wearing...when did he ever wear _only_ plaid boxers? He was utterly confused, then, years spent as a spy told him that he was not alone in the room. He snatched his wand up from the table side and winced at the stiffness of his body, he walked warily into the living room and saw a big lump on the couch, he peered at it and it moved! He came closer and saw now that it wasn't a thing, it was a girl, a familiar bushy-headed girl whom he had always disliked...Granger.

Hermione felt a change in the room and opened her eyes, for a second her vision blurred and then she saw Snape's livid face leering at her.

"Miss Granger" he hissed "What are you doing in my chambers?" then suddenly confused, "How did you get in here in the first place?" To his amazement she giggled.

"What, may I ask, is so amusing?"

"Sir, forgive me but...you look out of ...character standing there in boxers, assuming a teacher's role."

Snape's jaw dropped and to Hermione's amazement, he started to blush.

"Get out." He hissed.

"I don't think you're in the position to order me around...sir. Besides you must be aching right now, here let me help you." She got off the couch and started toward him. Snape's already taut body, became more rigid, his eyes got wide when he saw what _she_ was wearing.

"What are you wearing?" asked an almost horrified Snape.

""What? – Oh! Muggle clothing. Let me help you loosen your muscles." Snape stepped back; he seemed to rather face another night of torture than face Hermione right now.

Laughing, "I'm not going to hurt you" then more sternly "If you don't get back to your bed right now, you'll pay."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Try me." He crossed his arms across his chest defiantly. She muttered a spell and Snape was helpless in the air, unmoving, eyes flicking back and forth wild.

"Don't worry I didn't petrify you, its just that the air pressure around you is much thicker so you cant move anything really." She moved him to his bed and took out oil and started to massage Snape's back. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Snape's eyes started drooping, his muscles started to relax and he found that he rather liked the methodic motion and warmth of Hermione's small hands.

Hermione was enjoying the relaxing exercise and could have sworn in the middle, Snape giving a moan or two as comments of her massage. Her mouth twitched and it formed a small smile, when she was finished, she lifted the air pressure spell and braced herself for an explosion. It never came. Instead, Snape turned over and looked at her so intensely she started to blush. Then she heard a low, soft voice ask her "Why?" For a moment, she was confused, and then she realized that it was Snape talking.

"Because I figured that...I don't know...it's just that ...I-I figured you couldn't be all that bad, I mean, Dumbledore _did_ trust you and all, but if you really were bad, why did you protect us so much? Why did you care about our incompetent minds? Why did you put yourself in such danger if you really were on Voldemort's side? One slip and you would have gone down either way." Snape took all this in thoughtfully

"You put a lot of thought in this haven't you?"

"Well I had to, sir, or else, I couldn't have been this determined to help you." Snape raised an eyebrow.

"I see...and up until now, I always thought you were a parrot..." Hermione flushed.

"So you believe there is some good in me...hmmm...and you said you were here to help me...Tell me, how did you know what potion I was referring to?"

"I went to the DADA office before I came and I saw your cabinet full of potions and I remembered one labeled with something about the Cruciatus curse."

"How did you get in here?"

"I saw your tapestry and I was thinking about you, I saw a paper in the DADA office that had Spinner's End on it and when I thought it, the tapestry changed and I saw the werewolf and in Latin werewolf in _loup garou_..." she trailed off at Snape's held up hand

"I get it...now, what do you want for breakfast? I'm rather hungry right now."

"Oh! Ummm... I'll have whatever you're having." Snape nodded in acknowledgement

"Go wash your hands, then meet me in the kitchen."

A few minutes later, Hermione followed the scent of wonderful breakfast to the kitchen and to her amazement; Snape was hand cooking the meal!

"I _can_ cook you know." Amused and smirking. Without turning around he said, "Close your mouth, you don't want any pixies flying into her mouth."

Hermione blushed; she didn't realize she was gaping. She sat down at the table. Snape served the food, eggs, bacon, apples, and pumpkin juice. They ate in silence, it was only when they both finished eating did Snape talk.

"How long have you been here?"

"About 16 hours...why?"

"You should be getting back, they'll worry about you."

Smiling, "Alright, Sir, I'll come back later to check on how your doing. Bye" with that, she walked out the door and to her chambers.

What was wrong with him? Why in the world was he so..._nice_? _Especially_ to know-it-all Granger…he went back to his bed and saw three uncorked bottles, he sniffed all three and frowned, then realization gripped him as a very suspicious wave of fatigue swept over him. _Bloody girl, put a calming and felicious (happy) potion in the concoction, didn't she know that the ingredients in the Cruciatus antidote, the calming potion and the sleeping draught made the drinker tired? _He mentally slapped himself. _Of course she knew that's why she put them together in the first place…I'm gonna get her tomorrow._ Then he passed out onto the bed and fell into a deep, much needed, healing sleep.

Hermione grinned to her herself, she never heard Snape so agreeable before, she mused. Then she suddenly turned serious, _I have to figure out a way to get him help without attracting attention, and I have to stay here and help him, I can't join up with Harry and Ron now, I just can't._ She was so deep in thought she bumped into Professor Lupin, and they both fell onto the floor.


End file.
